TEXAN

Shop is open :O) and flooding!

My Etsy Shop is open! I have been working hard to get those cyber doors open. I make everything in my shop from scratch, they are not items I buy already made and add embroidery to them.

I will be having a give away in the next several days from my shop, so keep a eye out on my blog for that!

If you would like to visit my shop here is the link.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MySuiteRetreat?ref=si_shop

A few of the goodies you will see.

I have Crochet Hook organizers

Cute flouncy aprons.

I love this embroidery :O)
It says
"You say Witch like its a bad thing"
and this cute little sassy witch who I can just see saying that :O)

Half aprons great as clothespin aprons or for any other task you need as they have one big pocket. That big pocket is also lined so the aprons are really substantial and will hold up. Soft covered cording is the detail.
You tie the ties in the back or front which ever you like.

Cuteness :O)

All sorts of zipper bags. Lined, no raw edges inside the bag at all, even under the zipper no raw edges.

Knitting needle Organizers, inner lined for extra durability.

Okay now that I have put you guys through that :O)... I will show you pictures of what is happening here as of right now.. We are flooding... I swear where was all this rain last summer when we were loosing 100s yes 100s of trees. We gave up counting how many trees are dead on just our property, giant Oaks and huge Cedars they are gone. I am grateful for this rain now, but sure wish we could have had some of this last summer for those trees.

The overflow spot on our pond is in this area, but this whole side of the pond is now overflowing. I sure hope the fish are hanging onto something or they are so going for a ride! There is a creek umm that isn't really a creek rolling down toward the back of the property as far as I can see it.

Water coming into the pond all the way back up the pasture as fast as it can flow. Um no that isn't a floating pier lol though it looks like one now.

I am not very good with the camera obviously but you can see the water just flowing out.

This is not part of the pond, this is what a lot of our yard and places around the property look like, standing several inches in water.

Our road is under water in two spots right now. I am so sitting tight and not leaving this place today.

Again I am surely not complaining, I don't dare after last summers drought. But I do hope this doesn't get to out of hand! Its still just pouring rain.

You guys remember Cube's twins Betty and Boop, they sure have grown. I took this today. Betty is the blacker one and Boop is the lighter one. They are such sweet girls.

Then we have Cube in the photo below, she is the white one, the black one you can only see part of is Lola.

Here is a better photo of Lola she will be kidding soon. She has started to form a bag. This will be Lola's first kid/kids we are all excited and hoping for girls! Her hair is standing up on her back lol because she and Cube have decided that they need to get into a head butting contest every time I come to the corral. Both are sure I have treats in my hand and both have no intention of letting the other one get any LOL... In this case I had no treats just my camera lol.

Lola says oh sure we can't eat that thing you have in your hand but you brought it out here anyway.. geesh...

The vegetable seedlings are really getting some size on them! They have been in the greenhouse for a bit now.

These are the three garden rows we have by the greenhouse, They are not in the main garden. This last weekend they got tore out then the wire grid put down and they were put back, then the compost was put in on top of the original dirt.. Remember that pile of compost we had delivered it was 10 yards honeyman said that was what he ordered. We have used every last ounce of it!!

The wire is sure going to be s surprise to some moles this year!!! I wish I could see their faces when they hit that at every single garden row we have now. Yep it will be what the heck!!! , snicker snicker. Sorry moles you will have to go eat something else besides the roots off our vegetables!

I am also working on laying out the soaker hoses in the main garden rows. I will bury them once I get them all laid out. I have noticed lately that I am slower than I used to be LOL or it sure seems like it.... I am just sure it has nothing to do with being 47 and not 20 or 30 something anymore LOL...With gardening, sewing for etsy (no haven't got my store open yet but soon) and everything else one has to take care of on a farm and household.. nope has nothing to do with that either LOL...The compressed disc I am dealing with in my neck isn't helping but that is a whole different story argggg... Chiro has been working on it. We will get it happy again but in the mean time it is slowing me down a little. All in all its just taking me longer it seems to get things done LOL

So thats whats been going on around here.. work, work and work a little more :O)...

Remember the photo of the pile of bias tape I made. This is what it was for :O)

Its girly, its flouncy and it really is fun to have on. Just kinda puts a spring in your step!
If you click on the photo you can see it so much better :O).

10.5 yds of bias tape I made, you guys saw in previous post.

You guys know I use my kitchen a lot!, but not everyone likes to cook and can :O).
I thought this was so fun!

It reads

The ONLY reason I have a Kitchen is because it came with the House!

Its straight in real life lol I wasn't holding my camera straight but in the first photo you can see its straight on the apron!

I think the flouncy layers of the skirt just make this apron :O). Just look at the back of it :O). The layers are all trimmed on the edge with the bias tape. The top bib also has the bias tape around it.

I have no idea why it looks like my dress form is bending forward in this last photo LOL she is not.

This apron will be in my Etsy shop. It is size M/L

Excellent read...

The American Chestnut

The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a perfect Tree

Susan Freinkel

This is a book I've finished reading, it was fantastic!

~~In my spare time~~, when I have been able to eek out a few minutes here and there I have been researching Chestnuts, all the varieties, where they grow, how they grow, what climate, etc..

In my research I came across this book on American Chestnuts, which almost became extinct many years ago due to blight. 4 billion trees were lost which as I said almost totally wiped out our American Chestnut. The American Chestnut was huge to America in so many ways before the 20th century. I find it amazing that its history is not well known by everyone. Its truly an American icon in my way of thinking. That so little is said or known about this tree is amazing to me, as it was apparently to the author of this book, who decided to put in writing the importance and amazing life and history of this tree. The book covers so much, not just the illness that hit this tree, but its role in every day life where it grew. It gave Food, timber, tannin, medicinal, livestock feed just to name some of its roles and she explores all over those in this book.

It was dubbed the perfect tree and after reading this book I can certainly see why. What an amazing tree it was/is. The amount of effort that has/is going into saving this tree is unbelievable!

I have also been learning a lot about the Chinese, Japanese and European Chestnut trees. Sadly what infected our American chestnut, blight, was imported on the Chinese or Japanese trees or both. Way back when before they knew the dangers of importing plants here and there without quarantine or such, the disease was imported into America. For various reasons our Chestnut trees could not fight it off where the Chinese and Japanese ones had the ability. The Chinese has the best resistance. The European Chestnut trees became infected with the blight but for various reasons they were able to control the disease over there.

You will have to read the book to get the whole story :O).

The Liebster award is making the rounds and I have been awarded it by Hilltop Homestead :O) who is another Texas farmer. Thank You for the award :O).....

They just got some of the cutest rabbits, you guys run on over there and take a peek at them and the nifty hutches they built for them with mostly left overs they rounded up! They work hard on doing a lot without spending a lot, you have to admire that!

Its my understanding this award is to say WTG to bloggers who have less than 200 followers as of yet....kinda give a hey this is a neat blog tip of the hat to them...

Who doesn't like to get an award for what ever reason :O). It just makes ya feel good, huh :O).

Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.

3. Pick your favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

Laughing Duck Farm Melodie... has lots of different critters, she gardens, cans, spins, knits, dyes her own yarns, grows her own fleece, her wool babies as I call them are so darn cute. Oh yes and she makes to die for home made soap which she sells in her Etsy shop. She is also my best buddy. No that is not why I gave her the award, LOL go check out her blog and see for yourself!

DakotaGoats Deb ...This gal does it all folks, she works out side the farm and she raises all sorts of cirtters, she makes cheese, she... well heck just tootle on over there and take a look at what all she does on her farm ... Oh ya go back into the Dec. archive and check out the barn this gal is building! I have MAJOR barn envy! :O)

Journey to Casmir Tracy... Another farmer gal but not from Texas, this gal is in Canada, brrrrr... she is one hard working farmer! Goats, doggies, chickens, pigs, rabbits yep she has them all. I am pretty sure she could also win the prettiest farmer gal skin award. LOL guess that sounds funny but well she has the prettiest skin mmm or does one say complexion? See I really need to get out of the cave more.. anyway go visit her :O).

Okay that isn't five that is three but I have got to get this posted as I have chores waiting on me!

A bit of a boring post...

Doesn't look like much laying there does it. Its 10.5 yards of bias binding I made. Anyone who has ever made this binding knows that burned fingers go with the territory or it does for me. I swear I must get myself with the steam a gazillion times while making it, for sure while making this many yards of it. I needed this for a cute something I am making ;O).. I will show it to you when its all done.

My seedlings, a lot of the tomatoes are ready to put in bigger pots. I will be doing that this week. I had very good results, only a few didn't come up.

My pepper seeds are sprouting up now in the covered pans you see, they are always slower to come up than tomatoes and I always plant them after I do the tomatoes so I always start to worry are they going to come up? LOL then they start sprouting through the dirt. One would think I would know this since I do it each year LOL..

I told ya it was a bit boring ....

Okay we are back up and running smoothly with the Internet/computer. We figured out what our issue was and several $$$$ later its fixed now.

Nothing new here outside of that, still sewing a lot for my Etsy shop. OH wait that is probably new LOL. I don't think I told you guys yet. All this sewing is for my Etsy shop I am opening. I will let ya know when I get it full of goodies so you can go take a peek.

The garden seedlings are doing great soon I will start potting them into pots, I planted my cabbages and Brussels Sprouts in the garden and I put in more Asparagus. This gives me a nice size bed dedicated to just Asparagus. That huge pile of compost is in all the raised beds that are in the hoop frames, Thanks to honeyman. I did one row and whew, that BIG wheelbarrow we bought was like wrestling a bear when I would dump it! Even honeyman said it was a handful. So he helped me out and he dumped the loads in the rows and I raked it in.

I must say our weather has been outstanding! This has made for some fabulous running. I am trying to take full advantage of the nice days because soon enough summer tempts will set in here and it will be back to getting out the door literally at daylight if I want to run outside, I enjoy the treadmill to some degree but nothing beats running outside in the fresh air! I have set a personal best in the last few months on a five mile run. I feel really good about this since I just turned another year older this January .... Yes the time clock does keep ticking. Which is a good thing right :O) ...

I am working hard! Sewing lots of neat things :O)

Its like being back in the drapery work room when I worked in Interior Design, only I am not making drapes. But I am putting in a lot of hours keeping those machines humming! Why you ask, soon I will tell you :o).

A work in progress in the photo below, I bet some of you will know what that will be...

I am still trying to figure out why I am having so much trouble loading peoples blogs, I can get one or two to load using my blog manager on my dashboard then boom it happens. I start getting Not available notice. Or I get it to load and then can't leave a comment. I can post on my blog sometimes and sometimes not.

I am going to check into this FireFox.... about a year ago we switched to Google Chrome and that seemed to fix a mountain of computer woes for us but now we are back having issues. We will get it figured out I am sure!

Where we live we have one choice for Internet, well okay two if you count dial up. We have to use a air card I think that is what they are called. We are lucky there is a ATT cell phone tower up the freeway a bit or we would be stuck with just dial up as our only option! Its been working pretty good but we are having some other issues that I think are related to our Internet connection as well. So we will be checking into that as well.

Computers are the best and the worst aren't they!

Now lets see if this will post!

Arggghhhhhh

I am having major issues with either Blogger or my Internet connection or my browser (s)... I do not know for sure which it is! But its making reading blogs and leaving comments soooooooooooo hard for me right now!

I hope to figure this out soon!

Compost and recycled containers

Compost arrived yesterday afternoon. I think it looks very good. Now to wheelbarrow it to the rows! I got one row done today. Whew...

This morning before the compost moving. I got out all my containers that I use to pot my seedlings into as they start to grow. I should have washed them up before I put them away last year, but well ummm okay I got lazy and didn't do it. I am very lucky that this winter has been so mild today 74 so I could get in the water to clean them up. I could really be kicking myself right now if we had freezing or below temps and I was saying great now how am I going to wash up all those dirt pots! I will put them away clean this year!

So I have a mix of all sorts of pots. Anything from recycled nursery pots to recycled food containers I have saved or people have saved for me. Funny when people know you garden they will bring you things that people who do not garden would consider trash and you are thrilled to get it. I always find it interesting to see what containers they bring me LOL. To be honest plastic is not my favorite thing in the world for using but the pots and containers are free, they work! They also can be used over and over and I need a lot of them sooo.

Tub of bleach water.

Knee foam pad and rubber gloves!

Rinse water that also has a tiny tiny dab of bleach in it. Not as much as I use in the wash one.

Drain to dry tubs

Okie dokie all done! Some of my tubs draining and drying in the sun.

Gardening and Sewing

Been in the garden getting it ready to plant :O), have a huge load of compost being delivered today! Planted more tomato seedlings, peppers will be planted 25th and 26th almanac says those are very good days to start pepper seedlings! Quite a few of the tomato seeds I had already planted are up and about 1.5 " tall already!

Have bought my cabbage seedlings because as usual I didn't get any started soon enough. I also got Brussels sprout starts. Yep they are out full swing in the nurseries here. I am hopeful my asparagus made it from last year as it was doing so well before the 110 degrees hit. I tried to keep it watered. I got enough roots to finish filling that bed this year. Its in about a 5 foot long bed.

We put in that one group of 8 fruit trees last year, all have buds on them but one pear we lost. We dug it up and returned it. Again given the summer we had that is super in my way of thinking. You have to love that one year plant guarantee! My two pomegranate trees I had put in, well we will see they are slow to come out so its to early to know if they made it or not. I sure hope so they are past the guarantee time so if I lost them, its a total loss. All of my blackberries made it. I did loose some honeyberries and bush cherries sighhhh the cherries had been in 2 years so I can't get those replaced but the honeyberries I can call and get replacements for free as they are covered :O). So will replant those little guys.

Have also been sewing a lot, here is a sneak peak. More to come on this later...

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to let me know what you saw on your computer with my header. I tried and tried to fix it. I guess I will just have to accept it the way it is... bummer. I liked it so much better when it went all the way across my page top.